Greetings, heavy music aficionados, and welcome to the first Heavy Side Up of 2018!

We’re kicking off the year with a pretty interesting featured release – the experimental Portuguese band Sinistro, who make exceptionally atmospheric music with elements of post-metal and doom metal, among many other genres. It’s difficult to describe their work, but if you’re into the more ambient side of metal, you should definitely check it out:

And for those looking for something a little less experimental, the debut album from Chilean progressive metalcore band The Antarctica Project proved to be one of my favourite releases this week – nothing revolutionary, but consistently solid and engaging from start to end:

This was one hell of a week for fans of European black metal, with the release of new albums from Swedish black metal giants Shining and Watain, along with Austrian black metal band Summoning and Belarusian blackened death metal band Infestum.

In addition to this, there were also new albums by blackened hardcore band Ancst, black/death/thrash metal hybrid Black Eyed Children, hardcore band Bloodbather, metalcore band Collapse the Sky, progressive metal band Destination Void, post-hardcore band Embracer, one-man prog metal act Exelixis, deathcore band Gamma Sector, metalcore band Improvement, power metal band Ousiodes, metalcore band Prometheus Dreams, hard rock band Temple Agents, hardcore band Treble Lifter, thrash metal band True Witness, metalcore band We Gave it Hell, and progressive metalcore band WeDivide.

And lastly, there were multiple debut EPs this week: One-man progressive metal act Abnegation (not to be confused with the 90s-era death metal band of the same name), deathcore band Crown Magnetar, death metal supergroup Dominant, melodic hardcore band Placeholder, alternative metal band Reliqa, and metalcore band Vile Ones, along with the second EP by metalcore band Arcadian and an EP by metalcore band Monument of a Memory.

So, what have you been rocking out to?

SIDE NOTE: For those who missed Corn’s Artist Spotlight on Cave In earlier this week, I would thoroughly recommend reading it!